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Sunday, March 31, 2013

The
PBA is grieving at the moment with the death of Bobby Parks. The guy is a
legend and I can’t see any of the recent imports to eclipse what he has done
for Philippine basketball.

Moving
on, these rookies hope to even get a speck of what he did to further the
development of Philippine basketball.

In
some ways, some of them did just that.

Last
week, it was hard to look at the rookies with delight. This time around though,
it’s a different story. Calvin Abueva and Junmar Fajardo broke the 10-point
mark while Cliff Hodge, Chris Ellis, Chris Tiu, and even Raphy Reyes did enough
for their respective ballclubs.

Reyes
in particular, stole the show for the Aces since they are compensating for the
loss of “J-Shock” Jayvee Casio due to injury. Junmar Fajardo is also making up
for the horrible second game of outgoing Petron import Rodney White. In his
second tour of duty, the player who left Barako Bull last year for a shot in the
NBA forgot to pack his basketball skills and Petron in response gave him the
pink slip.

If
they haven’t… then are Blaze Boosters really keen on keeping this guy?

Making
up for the Easter break, here are the top rookies!

2013
PBA COMMISSIONER’S CUP

START
TO MARCH 27, 2013

NOW

THEN

PLAYER

PPG

RPG

APG

SPG

BPG

1

1

CALVIN
ABUEVA

ALASKA

10.73

8.18

1.27

0.55

0.64

2

2

JUNMAR
FAJARDO

PETRON

10.30

7.20

0.50

0.20

0.80

3

3

CLIFF
HODGE

MERALCO

8.70

5.20

0.80

0.70

0.60

4

4

CHRIS
ELLIS

GINEBRA

6.10

5.30

1.70

0.50

0.70

5

5

CHRIS
TIU

RAIN
OR SHINE

6.50

2.30

2.20

0.30

0.00

6

6

ALEX
MALLARI

SAN
MIG COFFEE

4.00

3.20

1.60

0.40

0.20

7

7

AJ
MANDANI

GLOBALPORT

4.00

1.13

1.38

0.63

0.00

8

8

VIC
MANUEL

MERALCO

5.44

2.33

0.33

0.11

0.11

9

12

RAPHY
REYES

ALASKA

3.67

1.00

1.33

0.44

0.00

10

9

JP
BELENCION

GLOBALPORT

3.75

1.50

1.00

0.00

0.00

11

10

YOUSEF
TAHA

GINEBRA

1.80

2.00

0.20

0.00

0.20

12

11

JASON
DEUTCHMAN

GLOBALPORT

1.00

1.80

0.20

0.00

0.20

13

13

ALDRECH
RAMOS

ALASKA

2.25

0.75

0.13

0.13

0.00

14

14

SIMON
ATKINS

AIR21

0.80

0.60

0.20

0.20

0.00

15

NR

KEITH
JENSEN

GINEBRA

0.00

0.67

0.00

0.00

0.00

And
as bonus, here are my Top 21 rookies SINCE the start of the season.

1

CALVIN
ABUEVA

ALASKA

PHILCUP:
SEMIFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

2

CLIFF
HODGE

MERALCO

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

3

CHRIS
ELLIS

GINEBRA

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

4

JUNMAR
FAJARDO

PETRON

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

5

VIC
MANUEL

GLOBALPORT
/ MERALCO

PHILCUP:
ELIMINATION ROUND

COMCUP:
ONGOING

6

CHRIS
TIU

RAIN
OR SHINE

PHILCUP:
FINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

7

JASON
DEUTCHMAN

GLOBALPORT

PHILCUP:
ELIMINATION ROUND

COMCUP:
ONGOING

8

AJ
MANDANI

GLOBALPORT

PHILCUP:
ELIMINATION ROUND

COMCUP:
ONGOING

9

YOUSEF
TAHA

AIR21
/ GINEBRA

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

10

ALEX
MALLARI

PETRON
/ SAN MIG COFFEE

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

11

ALDRECH
RAMOS

SAN
MIG COFFEE / ALASKA

PHILCUP:
SEMIFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

12

RAPHY
REYES

ALASKA

PHILCUP:
SEMIFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

13

KELLY
NABONG

MERALCO
/ GLOBALPORT

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

14

KEITH
JENSEN

GINEBRA

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

15

SIMON
ATKINS

AIR21

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

16

LESTER
ALVAREZ

BARAKO
BULL / SAN MIG COFFEE

PHILCUP:
ELIMINATION ROUND

COMCUP:
ONGOING

17

JP
BELENCION

MERALCO
/ GLOBALPORT

PHILCUP:
QUARTERFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

18

DAVE
MARCELO

BARAKO
BULL

PHILCUP:
ELIMINATION ROUND

COMCUP:
ONGOING

19

JEWEL
PONFERADA

SAN
MIG COFFEE

PHILCUP:
SEMIFINALS

COMCUP:
ONGOING

20

BOGART
RAYMUNDO

GLOBALPORT

PHILCUP:
ELIMINATION ROUND

COMCUP:
ONGOING

21

WOODY
CO

BARAKO
BULL

PHILCUP:
ELIMINATION ROUND

COMCUP:
ONGOING

Calvin
Abueva is a lot of points ahead of second placer Cliff Hodge who is just
beginning to re-assert himself in the Meralco scheme of things. It’s a tight
race for third with Junmar Fajardo who missed almost half of Petron’s
Philippine Cup games trying to move past the durable Chris Ellis. Chris Tiu is
creeping up at fifth especially with the early ouster of Vic Manuel’s
then-GlobalPort squad and the current depth chart that shields him from playing
more minutes with Meralco.

My
guess is if the current trend continues, you’ll check out that Calvin Abueva is
almost assured of the title because of how he is used in Alaska and how his
opponents are lagging in the standings.

You’ll
probably see this list again at the end of the Commissioner’s Cup.